Dead Rhetoric: What are your fondest memories of Enertia through the years?
Paciolla: The shows that I mentioned to you of course. Going to Atlanta, being a part of that ProgPower scene, even though we are not a super progressive band- we were accepted by people there. That was the weekend that Force came out. I sold just under 100 copies myself that weekend. Even some of the shitty shows that we did, if life served us lemons, we made lemonade (laughs). Nobody really belly ached too much if we got shorted on money or if there weren’t a whole lot of people there. We drove to Philadelphia a couple of times – a good friend of ours, Matt Johnsen was there both times and we had a lot of laughs. Everybody in the band got along well, we were compatible, no one complained.
Memorable songs… I’d say “The Mirror” because that was the first song that we all wrote together as a band, the five of us. Regarding Flashpoint I would say “Leave Me in Peace” because that was the first song we wrote that we maybe catered to an average listener and that ended up being true. When we would play local shows, more than the metal fans would really engage with that song. From the new album I would mention “An Old Fashioned Beating”. That song was inspired by three kids scoping my mom out at a local grocery store and planning on stealing her purse, and they did. Needless to say they ended up getting arrested the next day, they are lucky the cops caught them. I would have been a whole lot more violent with them than whatever happened to them. They had to pay restitution, and the ring-leader ended up doing several years locally and then upon release was going to be extradited to Michigan for shit he did there!
These kids not only planned on stealing her purse, they actually had this whole crime spree planned. They took the money that they stole from her and bought cat burglar outfits at this local store. They were planning on coming to my parents’ house, stealing her car and going to NY to buy drugs. They ended up robbing a store the next night, these same three kids, and when they got caught… two of them were 15-16 and the ring-leader was like 22. The 15 year old told the entire story to the cops, what they were planning on doing. I reached a whole new level of anger when I went to the police station and the detective told us they were caught. I actually happened to be living at home with my parents at the time this happened, I told the cop if they come back you were going to find three corpses in the road, because I would kill them all. I told Scott what I wanted him to write about and I don’t think the lyrics are as violent as I wanted them to be, but he still did a great job! I actually was in the hospital recovering from a severe stomach virus the day he tracked that song and it was the only session I missed during the vocal sessions. That track is very different for us, there are a lot of minor notes in it and even a sub signal at the very end! It conveys the anger I felt really well.
Dead Rhetoric: Name five of your all-time favorite metal albums – as well as who you consider the most underrated band that people need to spend more time investigating their catalog?
Paciolla: The records that influenced me the most. Wrathchild America – 3-D. One of my top five favorites, and I would say that was my favorite record in the decade of the 1990’s. The next one is Freak Kitchen – Dead Soul Men. Now in the current decade… it’s a tie on the two Protest the Hero records, Scurrilous and Volition. From the 1980’s… there are too many! I am trying to think what I would say to that. I’m going to be very bold and say this, there are so many other albums that I listen to depending on my mood but the one I’ve been listening to a lot lately is Black Sabbath – Heaven and Hell. I love that album.
The most underrated band in this day and age, Protest the Hero.
Dead Rhetoric: Where do you stand on crowdfunding- do you think if the model would have been in existence earlier in Enertia’s career, you would have been able to survive and thrive against the label turmoil?
Paciolla: I think that if it had existed back in 2005 or 2006, we would have put a record out a lot earlier and probably had a sixth record out by now. It would have changed things with a little more confidence. On our Myspace page in those days, we had 6,000 friends, and now I’m struggling to hit 500 on Facebook. Our name was a little more well-known then, there maybe weren’t as many bands. I think it’s a great way to raise money, but I don’t know – if I had said I wanted to do this last year, it would have been very challenging for us to raise $3,000. I’m also one of those guys who believes that if somebody spends $10 on a CD, they are going to get an autographed CD if they want one, not just a digital download – I would include that too! Why people charge more for autographs in this day and age is beyond me, I believe that type of shit is for bands like Kiss!
Dead Rhetoric: What are the band members currently up to, if anything, musically?
Paciolla: Currently, all the members of the band are very busy! First of all, Roman has been writing a lot of instrumental music and released his first instrumental CD in November of 2014 (which featured me on bass and Jeff Daley on drums) and is currently finishing up his new one (this one features me on bass and drummer Shawn Tallon), which should be out in the first half of 2016. He also wrote a bunch of tracks for a vocal project that Shawn and I are participating in and we still have not found a singer after a 3 year search! If there are any vocalists out there reading this that might be interested in hearing our material, drop me a line via private message via the Enertia Facebook page. Roman’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/roman.singleton.5
Scott and Jeff have been playing in an original Albany, NY metal band called Within The Fire (which is led by guitarist RJ Pipino and also features his brother, Kyle on guitar as well). I was recently asked to join this band and am very excited about it, as I will be going in the studio to record with them in less than 3 weeks and also returning to playing my first live show in 8 years on September 19th, opening for Symphony X and Overkill!